Baby People
by CIAChick
Summary: Cristina and Burke finally take about her pregnancy.


Cristina had never been a baby person. She had ignored her own pregnancy for as long as she could and even now, she didn't often think about it. She dreaded her rounds in neonatal like the plague. She had never felt like she was the type of person who should be around babies or people having babies. Babies were squishy and they had that particular baby smell. Cristina didn't like that smell. And she wasn't a squishy person. Whenever she entered the room of an expectant mother it was like they could tell she wasn't a baby person and treated her as an outcast because she didn't understand the joy of being a parent. It was all too cutesy. Cutesy was Izzie's thing. Recently talk amongst the interns had turned to Bailey's pregnancy and it all made Cristina a little sick to her stomach.

After Cristina managed to escape all the baby talk at the hospital, she headed over to Joe's to vent. "What is it about babies? It's baby this and baby that." Cristina sank down on a stool next to Meredith. She was cranky. Izzie had been talking practically non-stop about her plans for a shower for Bailey.

"It's Izzie's thing," Meredith shrugged. "Pick your poison." She nodded to the shot glasses she'd already emptied in front of her.

"No, I'd better not tonight. Burke and I are meeting here after his shift." As if on cue, Cristina glanced behind her and saw Preston Burke standing uncomfortably in the doorway. Meredith waved to him and he nodded at her.

"You have a date. That's so cute," Meredith grinned.

"I don't feel cute today," Cristina sighed but she threw back her shoulders and walked over to where Burke stood.

"So this is Joe's." He surveyed the bar and the booths.

"You've never been here?" Cristina asked, surprised. She'd just assumed that everyone who worked at Seattle Grace (and probably a lot of the patients) had stumbled across the street to Joe's at some point.

"Can't say I have. I've just heard the stories."

"Do you want to stay?" Cristina knew it wasn't his kind of place, there were peanut shells on the floor after all, but it was worth a shot.

"Maybe another time. We have reservations."

"Right." Cristina glanced back at Meredith who had been watching from her stool. Meredith gave a little smile and wave, toasting her glass towards Cristina, who made a face and followed Burke out.

* * *

"So do you have a Joe's story?" Burke asked once they were tucked in his car.

"Oh several, I guess. I went there after you broke up with me," she said in her usual blunt way.

"That seems as good a time as any." He couldn't help but smirk at her casual tone.

"Well it would have been normally. But I was also pregnant." This made Burke sit up a little straighter if that was possible. Cristina was sure his mother had never picked on him for slouching, something her mother still did to her.

"I've been meaning to talk with you about that."

Cristina felt her baby shield come up. It was one thing to talk about babies period, but after she had been listening to baby talk all day non-stop, right now was not the time to bring up the fact that she had once actually been pregnant. She loved spending time with Burke because he never felt the need to bring up their past and now he suddenly seemed to be infected with the same disease everyone else around her was carrying. "Okay. I love you and all that but I'm so not having a baby right now."

"What did you say?" He looked over at her for so long it made her worry about traffic and his driving capabilities.

"I'm not having a baby?"

"It was before that. Never mind. Forget it."

Cristina could tell it _had_ meant something, so she racked her brain. She knew Burke was studying her out of the corner of her eye, knowing she would figure it out momentarily. She sucked in her breath and all her features seemed to freeze as she replayed the conversation in her head. _No way. She hadn't said that really, had she?_ "Oh," she said quietly.

* * *

Throughout their date, she tried to act normal, hoping he wouldn't catch on that she knew what she had said, and hoping even more that he wouldn't be the one to bring it up. She tried to concentrate on what he was saying and was glad he didn't seem to notice she was acting ditzy all evening. She really had wanted to try this restaurant, but now all she could think about was running home to call Meredith and talk about what it meant. 

After dinner they went back to Burke's immaculate apartment. Cristina had to admit it had grown on her. It was almost soothing to have everything orderly, if not a little psycho. "Hey," she said, hanging her jacket up. "What I said earlier? I said I love you and I've been trying not to freak out about it for the past hour, but I am just a little. Freaking out." He broke into a smile. "What? This isn't funny!"

"Well I would be lying if I didn't tell you I've been falling in love with you ever since I found out why you collapsed in my OR." Cristina wouldn't admit it to anyone, but Burke had a way with words that made her knees turn to jelly.

* * *

"So what's this news you had to tell me?" Meredith asked the next night at Bailey's shower. Cristina and Meredith stepped through the living room, which was bathed in a sickeningly sweet shade of cotton candy blue. They ignored Izzie's request that they should join in whatever inane game she had planned and steered around the pile of presents into the kitchen. 

"It's so completely ridiculous. God, I need another drink." Meredith refilled both their glasses and watched as Cristina swallowed half of her refreshed drink in one gulp. "The other night when Burke came to Joe's, we started talking about how everyone has a story about Joe's—except him because he's never been there."

"He's never been to Joe's?" Meredith gasped. "That's tragic."

"That's not even the point. So I said something about going there when I was pregnant and he had dumped me. And he said we should _talk_ about it."

"About the break-up?"

"About the baby. How many drinks have you had?" Cristina frowned.

"As many as it takes to get through this thing."

"I hear you. So I freaked out so much about the baby talk that I blabbered out something about loving him but not getting pregnant again."

"You _love_ Burke?"

"Well--"

"What did he say?" Meredith jumped in.

"He said he'd been falling in love with me since I collapsed in his OR." Cristina snorted. "How romantic of me."

"God, he's smooth," Meredith replied, shaking her head. "So what's the problem? If you both do?"

"He's so eloquent about everything and I'm _not_. Since I said it—I don't want him getting super serious on me."

"Cristina, you almost had his child and now you're living together, it can't get much more serious."

"Marriage." She said quietly and they both winced.

"Try not to freak out about it," Meredith reassured her. "I mean things don't have to change just because you said I love you."

"Well what happened when you told Derek?"

"Told him what?" Meredith looked at her blankly.

"That you love him," Cristina sighed.

"I don't—I mean, I haven't told him yet."

"Seriously? You know you're his Joe's story, right?"

"What? I am?" Meredith did a double take and glanced towards the living room where the males had barricaded themselves in a corner.

"That's what Burke told me. Apparently they were swapping their stories even though he doesn't have one."

"You need to work on that."

"It's next on the list." Cristina waved as she returned to the living room, planning to drag Burke away from the disaster site Izzie was calling a party.

* * *

As Cristina was washing her face, the shower water cut off and she saw Burke smiling at her in the foggy mirror. He pulled back the curtain and wrapped a large fluffy towel around his waist. She tried not to stare in awe, but knew she was probably slightly googly-eyed. For someone who spent most of his waking hours in a hospital, Burke had a rather toned torso and chest. It wasn't hard to forget what those scrubs were hiding and Cristina sometimes had trouble keeping a straight face when she saw him walking around the hospital. It was that thirteen-year-old girl giddy feeling she rarely had and something only he could bring out in her. 

"What are you smiling about?" She asked, a smile now on her face, as she leaned forward to make sure she'd gotten off all her eye makeup.

He stepped forward, sweeping her hair over her shoulder and bent down to kiss her neck. She turned toward him, letting her hands brush over his toned chest as her mouth met his.

"Hang on," Cristina said, clamoring for breath. "About what I said the other night--"

His face fell. "You didn't mean it," he said stoically.

"No!" She jumped in. "No, I did, I just—are things going to be different now?" She looked up at him, her heart pounding.

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I guess I don't want anything to change. At least not all at once," she shrugged, hoping he would understand.

"Things won't change unless you want them to," he replied softly.

"Good," Cristina smirked, stretching up to kiss him again. We're good, she thought, as she untied the towel around his waist.


End file.
